Christmas novel light, romantic, easy read

Friday

Sep 30, 2011 at 5:31 PM

It’s December 1887 in the Texas Panhandle, and Christmas is fast approaching, along with a nasty blizzard. Eight lonely hearts, divided up boy-girl in four stories, are about to find their mates in “A Texas Christmas,” a new anthology released this month.

Amarillo writer Jodi Thomas is joined in this anthology by fellow Amarillo residents DeWanna Pace and Phyllis Miranda, and Rawls resident Linda Broday.

Thomas’ story, “One Wish,” involves a man from the wrong side of the tracks — or the wrong side of the canyon in this case. Samuel is a Thompson whose family doesn’t have much use for townfolk, but since first grade, he has harbored a secret affection for storekeeper Maggie. When she runs afoul of outlaws, Samuel offers her sanctuary in his snowed-in cabin in the canyon.

Samuel is almost too perfect a leading man, from his loving heart to his bad-boy stigma, but Maggie makes up for him with her bossy manners and uncertainty in the game of love.

The Texas Panhandle flavor is fun. Thomas and her compatriots weave in mentions of the Spanish skirts, Mobeetie, Old Tascosa and, of course, Panhandle sunsets.

The four stories are sketched in broad strokes, and they could have used a few more pages to deepen them, but they’re light, easy reading for romance enthusiasts, with a guaranteed happy ending and a merry Christmas four times.

“A Texas Christmas” by Jodi Thomas and others is available now from Zebra. Standard retail price: $6.99.

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